1. Zero Clients and Virtual Desktops in Academic Environments
Franz Agas
Systems Analyst
University of Michigan
School of Information

2. Overview of UMSI Graduate School - 369 Master's students
- 50 Ph.D students
Faculty
Our faculty and students work to develop an integrated understanding of human needs as they relate to information systems and social structures, connecting people, information, and technology in valuable ways.  SI pioneers the development and application of principles of information management. 

3. Sample Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Overview
Server Hardware
Hypervisor: VMWare Infrastructure 4
Microsoft Windows 7 Virtual Desktops
Directory Services: Microsoft Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, Open LDAP
Connection Broker: Pano Logic Manager or VMWare view
Clients: Zero, Thin, Thick

4. Clients Overview: How users interface with Virtual Desktops

5. Thick Clients Local Processing Local Data Storage
Installed Operating System
IT Maintenance Needed
Essentially a computer connected to a Network

6. Thin Clients Limited CPU/RAM Limited Data Storage
Embedded Operating System
IT Maintenance Needed

7. Zero Clients No CPU/RAM No Data Storage, No OS or Firmware
No Maintenance needed

8. Features We Looked For Cost Savings Scalability
Integration within our existing Infrastructure: Virtualization, Networking, Desktop management
Ease of Management for two locations
Power Savings – Green IT Energy Savings Initiative
Reduce time required for Lab and Research Desktop deployment
Student/Faculty/Staff access both offsite and onsite

9. Infrastructure Prior to Rollout
150 Ph.D/Staff/Faculty Windows PCs on Active Directory and Campus Network, equal amount of Apple OSX machines. User and Research data stored on central servers.
-Primarily Dell PC’s: Dual Core/2GB of RAM
Several Ph.D students and faculty using remote desktop to PCs on their desks
Two Computer Labs:
-30 Seat Masters Student Lab
-30 Seat Economics Lab
Servers already virtualized with VMWare ESXi

10. Initial Pano VDI Rollout 2008
Desktop Client:
15 Pano Logic Zero Clients, Keyboard/Mice, Monitor
Hypervisor:
VMWare ESXi 3.5
Connection Broker:
- Pano Logic Manager
In The Datacenter:
Dell Poweredge Server: Dual Intel Quad Core (8 core) 32GB Ram ,Windows XP Virtual Desktops

11. Current VDI Offering Desktop Client: Hypervisor: Connection Broker:
50 Pano Logic Clients, Keyboard/Mice, Monitor
80 Windows 7 Virtual Desktops (Persistent/Non-Persistent mix)
Plan to replace 30 PC Lab with 30 Pano Logic clients
Hypervisor:
VMWare ESXi 4, VMWare virtual center
Connection Broker:
- Pano Logic Manager
In The Datacenter:
3 x Dell Poweredge AMD R815 Servers: 48 Cores/128GB of RAM

12. Advantages to VDI Cost Savings: 30% increasing year after year
Time Savings: Quick deployment of Virtual Desktops
Energy Savings: 4 Watts for Pano Client w/Keyboard compared to 100 watts for a PC
Convenience of secure remote access for faculty, students and staff.

13. Advantages to VDI (Continued)
Increased Security: No data is stored on the endpoints. Strong 128-bit encryption between endpoint and virtual desktop.
Increased Security: Controlled computing environment for student/faculty research. Administrative access can be given to users with reduced IT overhead compared to regular workstations.

14. User Perspective Easy Transition to Virtual Desktops
More CPU/RAM Resources for Jobs than PC
Issues with Audio/Video – Zero Clients not for Multimedia Use
Since Faculty and Students were already used to Authenticating to Active Directory and storing their data on central servers, the transition to virtual desktops was fairly easy. The computing environment was essentially the same as physical pc’s.
Processing power for data large jobs were better on Virtual Desktops then PC’s, since we could allocate additional resources to user virtual desktops on our multi core servers on request.
Initially we had issues with Audio and Video on the clients, most of them have been resolved with recent Pano driver updates on the virtual desktops. While it is possible to watch Hulu on the Pano Devices since it is the only zero client that support flash, our goal was not multimedia. For a true multimedia experiences, a PC is still unmatched.

15. Long Term Benefits Lengthening Technology Replacement Cycle
Hardware upgrades result in significant cost benefits due to the increased number of Virtual Desktops per server
Instead of the typical 3 year PC replacement, we can make less expensive incremental upgrades over time
Enhancing the existing servers with more processors and memory
Adding additional servers to the cluster
Increasing storage
Improvements in software, both Pano and VMWare, should also enhance the end user experience
We have found that the long term benefits outweigh any potential short term loss during our initial rollout.
Hardware upgrades result in significant cost benefits year after year due to increased number of Virtual Desktops per server.
Instead of replacing PC’s in 3 years, we can make less expensive incremental upgrades over time such as upgrading server memory or adding additional servers.
Virtualization technology is changing, and improvements on both the hypervisor and client end will enhance the end user experience.

16. When it makes sense to deploy VDI
Leveraging existing Infrastructure:
Servers already Virtualized in the datacenter
Existing Network Infrastructure: DHCP/DNS, 1gb backbone, 100 mb to switch
Existing Directory Infrastructure: Active Directory, Open LDAP
Existing Desktop Management: Desktop Images, Unidesk, Active Directory Group Policy, SCCM, VMWare vCenter update manager
Existing Data Storage Infrastructure: Storage Area Networks, Managed Local Storage

17. Thank you!
Questions?